Chief Mentor’s Lectures

Invited lecture: The mysterious world of quantum computing on October 16, 2011 at the IEEE Workshop on Modern Computing Trends, Basaveshwar Engineering College , Bagalkot, Karnataka. The presentation slides can be found here.

Chief Guest: The World of Biotechnology Patents, International Symposium on Collaborative Research in Frontier Areas, April 06, 2009, Bangalore.

Invited lecture: Intellectual Property: The next step for achieving service excellence, Infosys STAR Conclave: Banking and Capital Markets, July 14, 2006, at Bangalore. Also participated in panel discus-sion.

Invited lecture: The world is ruled by ideas, L&T, June 16, 2006 at Mysore.

Invited lecture: Relation between information theory, thermodynamics and digital computers – a view from the works of Shannon to IBM’s Landauer and Charles Bennett, jointly hosted by IIITM-Kerala, IEEE Kerala Chapter, and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing-Thiruva-nanthapuram, Travan-core Hall, Techno-park, April 16, 2005.

Invited lecture: An algorithm for determining the equivalence of two blocks of assignment state-ments, Technical Experts Council – India (South), affiliated to the IBM Academy of Technology, at Bangalore April 08, 2005.

Invited lecture: An algorithm for determining the equivalence of two blocks of assignment statements, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and February 09, 2005.

Why Faradays and Maxwells?

The global knowledge economy, at its core, is driven by science-based innovative technologies. For any country to remain a major economic power in such an economy, it must vastly improve and increase its pool of scientists and technologists. In this economy, the ability to intelligently choose from a set of concepts to bear upon an unsolved problem is of essence.

The search for the likes of Faradays and Maxwells is deliberate. They are exemplars of what the human mind is capable of achieving. The world’s thriving electrical and electronics industry, on which so much of the quality of our lives depends, is due to them. Michael Faraday (1791 –1867)) (who didn’t know mathematics), towards the end of his career, gave to science the concept of electric and magnetic fields, and in 1865 James Maxwell (1831 – 1879) (who knew a great deal of mathematics) gave Faraday’s abstract concept a compact mathematical embodiment (which awed Faraday). Thus was laid the foundation of a phenomenal industry and the harnessing of a force of Nature that has changed the face of human civilization. Alexander Graham Bell’s patent on the telephone (perhaps the most important patent in history) came soon after in 1876.

Amazingly, and with the benefit of hindsight, the common thread between Faraday and Maxwell was their ability to think and reason in abstract terms about the real world and eventually map them to measurable real world effects. Since the days of Galileo Galilei, modern science and mathematics have happily complemented each other by inventing and sharing concepts and ideas on a foundation of axiomatic reasoning. Modern mathematics is mainly deductive and essentially axiomatic, while modern science is mainly inductive and axiomatic to the extent it uses mathematics. The language of all advanced science (physics, in particular) is mathematics (which combines amazing symbolic brevity with reasoning). The ability of humans to frame and work with abstract concepts provide the vital link between mathematics and science.

Executing a known mathematical algorithm is no longer considered an intellectual activity because, as Alan Turing showed in 1936, it is mechanizable and can be accomplished without the benefit of insight. It can be performed by a human mathematician who has unlimited time and energy, an unlimited supply of paper and pencils, perfect concentration, and works according to some algorithmic or ‘rule-of-thumb’ method—an ideal characterization of a “techno-coolie”. However, creating new concepts in mathematics, and new algorithms requires intelligence of a rare kind as does using mathematics to connect observations in the real world. The epitome of human ingenuity is creating new and useful concepts.

Raw talent

By raw talent, we mean those rare, mentally agile, naturally-gifted, free-thinking individuals who are the key to an organization’s success. They are rare because of their ability to do out-of-the-box, rational scientific thinking and who possess an ability to continuously expand their knowledge base in diverse areas including science and mathematics, deal with multiple disciplines and are capable of technology mobility (move from one “core” area to another). That is, they would be individuals with the potential ability to generate innovative and patentable technology. They would be better able to deal with the problems that may arise during the development of futuristic technologies. Our focus is on molding unpolished talent who can fulfill the unmet or undreamed needs of society.

What we do?

We help people act with insight.

We help companies grow from the inside.

We help employees turn into thinkers.

We ignite thought

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

--Thomas Jeffersonon Patents and Freedom of Ideas

Acadinnet’s focus

Acadinnet’s core business is in the high-end of education (not rote education but insight-based education and mentoring) and the insightful application of scientific knowledge to industrial applications. We help people move away from the awe of ignorance (as in rote education) to the awe of understanding (as in the bleeding edge of science).

Acadinnet aims to market India’s potential; not what it is but what it can be – a global supplier and attractor of scientific and technical talent. We help organizations find and nurture talent for the global knowledge economy. Our services range from finding people of raw talent, mentoring them, and helping them into becoming innovators. We focus on helping top raw talent realize their potential in dealing with unsolved problems that involve knowledge from multiple disciplines, and when the occasion demands, in protecting the intellectual property rights of their solutions.

We therefore aim to identify young people with the ambition of becoming the Faradays and Maxwells or the Cricks and Watsons of tomorrow and mentor them to become world-class innovators.

A unique component of our insight-based education and mentoring service is to provide mentees with insights in multiple areas of science and mathematics through the Insights in Science lecture series.

In very broad terms, the world’s economic development can be divided into four stages: hunter-gatherer (till about 12,000 years ago; more than 99% of our time on earth), agricultural (beginning about 12,000 years ago till about 1500 AD), industrial (from about 1500 AD to later half of 20th century), and postindustrial (later half of 20th century and continuing)1 , although a substantial comingling of two or more stages can be seen even today in many countries, including the world’s most advanced nations. The hunter-gatherer stage can support only about one inhabitant per square mile and demands a nomadic life involving extraordinary land-intensive activity. In the post-industrial information (knowledge-gatherer) age, we are primarily concerned about creating knowledge and using it to produce marketable products and services as quickly and economically as possible. The focus is therefore on knowledge workers. The knowledge-gatherer stage can support several orders of magnitude more inhabitants per square mile than was possible in the hunter-gatherer stage.

Axiomatic mathematics

Euclid’s geometry is the first specific evidence of an axiomatic treatment of mathematics. Some 2000 years after Euclid, several mathematicians reexamined its axioms and discovered non-Euclidean geometry. One such geometry forms the space-time geometry of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The discovery of non-Euclidean geometry was a revolution in mathematics, which led to what now forms the heart of mathematics—formal axiomatic systems. Formal systems form the basis of reasoning in mathematics and of all the computations we do on digital computers.

How reliably can we compute?

Several simple computations, as implemented on digital computers, will be examined. Their surprising common feature is that while there is no flaw in the coded logic, the computations fail. The reason for their failure and their remedies will be discussed. The lesson: programming is not about coding; it is about algorithms and their error propagation characteristics. We shall also take a look at some unusual ways humans prove mathematical propositions.

On symmetry

The notion of symmetry plays a central role in theoretical physics. The central theme of this lecture is the Emmy Nöther theorem, which states that for every observable symmetry in Nature there is a corresponding entity that is conserved. And for every conservation law there is a corresponding symmetry. For example, the law of conservation of angular momentum is a consequence of the isotropy of space.

Quantum cryptography and quantum teleportation

The world of quantum mechanics is truly magical. In this lecture we will look at the basic mathematical framework around which QM is built, and then look at the amazingly simple solutions to two problems: (i) the safe exchange of keys for encrypted messages, and (ii) the teleportation of matter. In both these solutions, Charles Bennett, a distinguished IBM researcher, played a pioneering role.